Sunday's Meetings Bath Flat 8 Races 1:50-5:35p.m. Wetherby Flat 7 Races 2:00-5:15p.m. Southwell A/W 8 Races 2:10-5:55p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
Wetherby 330 dream pirate should have a say here took 8s earlier best 7s now the odds dont warrant ew so win only , i have 4 pretty close in this so its a risk but 6s/8s looks worthy of a go. 405 took 12s ew on digital 11s avalable now but reduced to two places. 440 dandys spirit 10s ew 3places looks on a good mark at cd they have won at and the slight drop back in trip and return to track may be worthy of the risk. Bath 220 sarahs verse 11/2 comes of the back of a win here conditions will suit and the rebooking of Hollie looks a posotive. 505 roundaboutsilver took 10sew but now biggest 8s not worthy of an ew in my opinion now but certanly has a chance ant the market is showing that.
I see that a couple of firms are already betting on the 2024/25 National Hunt Trainer Championship - 9/4 Mr Nicholls and WP Mullins, 5/2 Dan Skelton, 9/2 Lieutenant Henderson. I guess its name your own price for anyone else!!!
Prices are as usual chicken-sh!t skinny from the accountant people who call themselves 'bookies' nowadays. Sorry, repeating my views said many times on the forum, and was digressing. If fair odds were offered, then a dabble on Dan Skelton would be my choice.
Terrible news. An extraordinary talent and I will never forget his titanic battle with Energumene at Ascot. RIP
Would certainly agree, with you, about the skinniness of those prices. Dan Skelton though would, in my view, be the least likely out of the 4 to lift the trophy this time next year. If someone held a gun to my head, although I'm sure no-one would ever want to do that, I'd say - 1. WP Mullins, 2. Lieutenant Henderson, 3. Mr Nicholls, 4. Dan Skelton.
I think Nicholls remains favourite because of the money he wins week in, week out. Mullins only got into contention thanks to the huge first prize for the Aintree National - he needs to win that every year plus have a magnificent Cheltenham to get anywhere near Nicholls - who had a very quiet season by his standards - just shy of 2.9M quid compared to nearly 3.65M last season. Nicholls all day long for me at those prices.
Surely with Nicholls though, he is on a downward trajectory? Can’t think of many top novices he has, and whilst I’d agree that he will pick up week after week, I can see more strength in depth from Skelton and classier animals at Henderson.
Very sad news about Shishkin. Condolences to Nicky Henderson, and all connected with his stable. They must be devastated by this tragic news.
The final NH trainers champ throws up some interesting stats (well to me anyway). Willie won by 300k in the end with the GN win giving him 500k. So without that and even with a stellar Cheltenham, Scottish National and Whitbread wins he would have been 200k short. So he’ll be hard pressed to back this up and speaks volumes for it as an achievement. If he wants to have a proper go at retaining the title I suspect he’ll need to target the bigger weekend prizes throughout the UK season. That said he has over 200 horses in training so he has plenty of ammo. I’d never even heard of his Scottish National winner. By comparison Skelton is listed as having 101 H.I.T and Nicholls 144. Nicholls got 132 winners from 564 runners. Skelton got 120 from 783 which is fairly average strike rate but then we all know fiddling Dan likes to run his horses just to get their mark down.So if I had to have a bet it would be Nicholls. 40% more ammo than Skelton and a far better strike rate.
We've probably thought that every couple of seasons since the halcyon days of Kauto Star, Big Bucks, Denman and Master Minded but he keeps turning out the winners. He's also got Caldwell Potter which is going to win everything from the Greyhound Derby to the Boat Race
